U.S. Pat. No. 6,071,157, issued Jan. 25, 2000 to Garfinkle et al., entitled Method of Processing Digital Images and Distributing Visual Prints Produced from the Digital Images, describes a method of processing digital images and distributing visual prints from the digital images. Such a system will be referred to herein as a photo-commerce system. The system described by Garfinkle et al. includes a roll based account structure and direct database (image server) access via a WWW (World Wide Web) and HTML (hypertext markup language) interface, and direct database access by scanning centers or photographers. Additionally, a highly distributed mesh of image servers which is based upon a policy of physically deploying image servers based upon individual scanning center needs. These features generate complex systems management issues which primarily occur in the areas of configuration management, performance management and security management. The highly distributed nature of this system creates an environment in which maintaining consistency among image servers regarding software updates, version control and general administration becomes inefficient. Individual image servers comprise the overall photo commerce system and must act in a consistent and uniform manner, but are continually hampered by their nearly random physical distribution. This physical distribution and fragmentation of the system yields performance issues which are ultimately experienced by clients attempting to access image servers in the form of time to access and response time. Security management of this photo commerce system is also a critical issue. Database integrity is continually at risk because scanning centers and other client devices directly make updates, which alter account information. Security consists of account authentication and HTTPS (Secure Hypertext Transport Protocol) which is inadequate in a system of this commercial nature and size. Finally the photo commerce system is designed to maintain accounts which compile numerous JPEG images into groups identified as rolls. This presents a fundamental limitation of the photo commerce system to support and identify account ownership of individual file types, which may be JPEG, or other electronic multimedia formats.
Hence, there is a need for an improved photo commerce system that avoids or addresses more directly the security, performance and configuration issues noted above, while supporting a greater range of file management options. It is an object of the present invention to increase security and integrity of databases, reduce configuration and performance management complexity and yield a more versatile and flexible account structure.